Thorpe Park: General Discussion

[Scott]

Fantastic ad - the tagline really is great and it definitely cements their target market much more clearly.

Obviously the park itself is very much a work in progress in terms of transition - but it's a step forward.

 

[Ollie]

Fantastic advert - very well put together, but that voiceover is just tacky in my opinion.

 

[thefatone]

I like those painted walls. They look bright and fresh. They look better.

My favourite part is the wall facing detonator. They've half painted over the old Pirate stuff block green then thought "nah that's enough" and goes into Pirate area theming. Looks BRILLIANT.

The Pirate area won't exist anymore, it should all be being covered by Angry Birds theme or removed. The only two attractions that ever were Piratey were the 4D cinema and Detonator.

That's what I'm making the point of, they haven't completely removed it. Look at the wall facing Detonator (be on Detonator, be on Inferno lifthill, you see it clear as day). They've painted HALF the wall very shoddily and left the rest of it pirate.

New advert is good though

 

[TheMan]

Fantastic advert - very well put together, but that voiceover is just tacky in my opinion.

It's tongue in cheek and fun, I actually like it.

It's a cheeky theme park not the opera lol! ;D

 

[Dave]

Swear that voice over is Pete Cliff

 

[TheMan]

Swear that voice over is Pete Cliff

It might be you know!

 

[Rob]

Haha it does sound like Pete actually! Good spot!

 

[wolfwynd]

I think it's Tom Baker from Doctor Who :*

Swear that voice over is Pete Cliff

 

[James]

Voice sounds far too young to be Tom Baker. Does sound like Pete Cliff!

 

[_nemesis_]

This is depressing is so many ways... :/

 

[djtruefitt]

Lol, that kind of reminds me of them theme parks in China which have been closed down for years

 

[Dar]

It's poetically depressing. An entire entertainment empire summed up in one image.

This video should also accompany any viewing of the above image:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIuotFZnBtk

 

[Bear]

It's poetically depressing. An entire entertainment empire summed up in one image.

This video should also accompany any viewing of the above image:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIuotFZnBtk

Mother of god you deserve an academy award for that post.

 

[Ian]

So moving, and yet depressing. Forget The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Schindler's List!

 

[CoasterCrazyChris]

This is going to fail so badly.

 

[Rob]

Wow, just wow. With a week to go there's really not much they can do to improve that is there. Awful.

 

[BigAl]

I can hardly control my excitement over this.

 

[James]

^ James says thanks for that post.

---

Were any of us really expecting anything more? It's not like we've been lead on by plans or the park. Given this is the same park that spewed out Storm Surge a few years back I can't say I was expecting a miracle. The minute I heard dodgems my interest stopped. This will flop on them, not even the Angry Birds IP can save this mess...

It's embarrassing for a park owned by a company "second to Disney" can only come up with dodgems as a new attraction. Makes you think the managers were in an office just having a joke, "Imagine if we built dodgems, haha" "Haha yeah, we may as well become Thorpe Funfair, hahaha", and one of them took the joke in a literal way and got to this point.

 

[_nemesis_]

^ That last paragraph sums it up really. If they can't even be bothered to add any Angry Birds stickers to the cars! :/

While parks like Phantasialand and Magic Kingdom add masterpieces, Thorpe add a budget dodgems. It's as though they are going for the record for biggest drop in attendance ever. How can Merlin have turned the only park Charterhouse/DIC Tussauds ever really cared about in to a national embarrassment?!

If someone had told me about this in 2009, I would have thought they were joking, but now this seems to have become a general expectation of Thorpe. A shame really, with just a little bit more thought, this whole project could have turned out so much better. :/

[/rant]

 

[PeteA]

Well well my second post of the night defending Merlin !!! Wow call the papers, call my Doctor !!

Thorpe Park have never or will never claim to be a Phantasialand or Magic Kingdom. For me I am glad of that fact, because apart from rides like Black Mamba and Maus au Chocolat and at a stretch Colorado Adventure, apart from the themeing, the rides are not really up to scratch at Phantasialand. Oohh controversial. The themeing makes Phantasialand, but the rides apart from the ones mentioned, left me wanting more.

Silber Mine: Boring now closed... Temple of the Nighthawk: Boring. Even Mystery Castle is a, if truth be known, hugely dissapointing for me.

The Magic Kingdom, Florida for me is again all theme, no substance.

Thorpe Park is changing the direction its going. They got rid of Octopus' Garden and replaced with a family water ride, thus alienating the family market. Whats so bad in trying to get it back? No one can deny that Dodgems arent fun family rides. A 4D Cinema is a great family experience. I cant see the problem here with ride choices. Maybe putting fastrack on a Dodgems isnt the best brainwave ever though !!

Thorpe Park is too one sided towards Thrills. All parks need to please all sections of the market. Thats why Tussauds got it right. All parks had rides for everyone.... Until Merlin came along.

Obviously this strategy hasnt worked, so they are now working to re-address it.

Lets see what this year and next year brings.

On another point, I stayed in their Shark Hotel on Tuesday night and had a great night. Comfy bed, great in room entertainment with mood lighting and internet TVs. Good entertainment in the dome and food and drink available until midnight at Bar 360. 3 Xbox consoles playing a variety of free games. Arcade open, pool tables, free ping pong table. I will actually go and say on record, I enjoyed it and I had a better time than my last stay at an alton Towers hotel.